Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chaz47]

I use voice over excerpts of about one minute in length from a TV serial in my classes as a lexical cloze dictation exercise. In general, I've had pretty good success with this technique over the past few years. It only represents about 15% or less of my class on a weekly average but I feel it is significant as I use it as a way to show students how easy it would be to attempt a similar method for self-study. In fact, the most talented students I've had during my time here have already done so on their own (sadly they are rare).

The problem is, I now teach adults but this a very broad range of individuals. Some of them are just exiting middle school and some are in their 70s, with the majority being 18-35 (fancy that). So, as a result of the dominant demographic, I've been using shows that are popular with the same demographic back home. For awhile it was The Walking dead, pros included relatively clear and slow pronunciation, cons... female students thought is was too gross (omfg).

Then it was Supernatural, my thoughts were along the line of the Korean love of ghost stories and music (Supernatural has loads of classic rock/metal) as well as the family-centeredness of the story arc. This went over quite well, but again a significant number of princesses wanted something 'less serious'.

Next was How I Met Your Mother. And this has gone down pretty well with just about everybody. The older students struggle a bit when Barney launches into one of his convoluted witticisms but generally it's good for everybody. Unfortunately, I and a few of the staff feel it might be a bit too sexual for younger students. Also, it might be good to go into something a bit slower for my older crowd.

I tell everyone in my classes to suggest new shows and from time to time I get suggestions. So far they include Grim, Modern Family and most recently Sam and Kate (I really doubt that a girl tween show from Nickelodeon will appeal to the office workers and retirees though).

Thoughts